Lieutenant Tom Kelly entered the situation room and took his normal seat for the weekly status meeting, two chairs to the right of the captain. He was already a little nervous to be here after the last two exchanges he had with the new captain. Bolerov had been quite vocal in his displeasure at Tom's lack of progress regarding the only two remaining 'big ticket' issues with the ship. T'Nia and Kirk were the only other two people in the room.
"Nice of you to join us, Lieutenant," Captain Bolerov said coldly. His gaze was emotionless, which made Stephen a little uncomfortable. Bolerov had been unnecessarily hard on Tom these past few days. After all, Tom had been a conveyor belt of miracles putting this ship together for as long as he'd been aboard. Andrei hadn't been giving Tom any credit for past performance and he wasn't offering any slack due to the complexity of the technology that was causing the problem. Captain Bolerov had been riding a lot of people too hard, including him. Bolerov had been pushing Stephen to be more forceful with Tom, but when Stephen wouldn't go as far as the captain wanted, Bolerov took matters into his own hands and took Kirk out of the loop.
"Sorry, Captain," Tom said, setting down a PADD as he sat. "I was putting together some data..."
Bolerov obtusely turned his chair to Kirk. "Commander, read off the list of outstanding issues," he started, giving no regard to the statement Kelly was trying to make. Tom stopped talking and unsuccessfully tried to hide an exasperated look on his face.
Stephen picked up his PADD and scanned its contents. It had barely been two weeks since Andrei Bolerov took over as captain of the Warlord and Stephen was losing his patience. Bolerov knew full well what was on this report. Stephen and he had talked about it yesterday morning. This was just another of the captain's humbling tactics. Kirk dared to cast a quick, sympathetic look at Tom. "Yes, Sir." Kirk began. "For high priority items, I have fixing the neutron cannons, solving the problem with the secondary shields, and correcting the auxiliary power fluxuations. As secondary prio..."
"Thank you, Commander." Bolerov interrupted. Now confident that he was about to make his point abundantly clear, he turned to face Lieutenant Kelly completely. "Lieutenant," he began with a sarcastic smile, "let's begin with item one. What's the status of the cannons?"
Tom let out a deep breath. They had gone over this issue before, just two days ago. He was getting physically sick of this topic. "It hasn't changed, Captain. We still don't know what's causing the overheating. We've looked at the original design specs down to the micrometer. Everything is fine. I just..."
"Mr. Kelly." Bolerov's voice became more authoritative. His Russian accent became a bit sharper. "This problem has been one of several on your plate for over a month. I need solutions, not excuses." His eyes narrowed. "We are going to be in Romulan space in less than a week. There is reason to believe an assassination attempt will be made on the vessel we're escorting and our primary means of defending ourselves doesn't work properly. Do you see a problem here, Lieutenant?" His voice became more stern, though he never once raised it.
"Yes, Sir... I do." Tom admitted dejectedly.
"Good." Bolerov sat back in his seat victoriously. "We will meet again in five days, Lieutenant. If you don't have a solution in your hands by then, I'll have a formal reprimand in mine. Is that understood?"
It was amazing to Tom how quickly he had fallen. Captain Velasquez was ready to name a holiday after him and this guy is ready to string him up by the yardarm. "Yes, Sir," he replied quietly.
Captain Bolerov wasn't about to let him off that way. Tom needed some fire in his belly. Andrei stood up at attention. "I said," his voice became official. "do you understand me?"
Tom considered him momentarily. It wasn't as though he was a cadet, for crying out loud. Captain Bolerov wasn't willing to listen to reason. The mechanics of the cannons were just fine. Whatever was wrong had nothing to do with how it was built. That meant it was beyond his knowledge... but ANDREI didn't want to hear that. Now he's being treated like a snot-nosed, first year cadet. Who did this captain think he WAS? Tom shot up from his chair, stood at attention, and saluted. "Yes, Sir!" He shouted.
Kirk sat in his seat, fuming. This berating was completely unnecessary as far as Stephen was concerned. Bolerov wasn't there at the beginning. He wasn't there when the ship started falling apart during the fight with the Rapier. Tom deserved much better than this. In his anger, he couldn't look at either of them. He simply thumbed through the to-do list on his PADD, though he had no idea what he was reading.
The captain's voice softened. That was the reaction Andrei wanted from Tom. That was the fire he knew would get the problem fixed. "You are dismissed."
Tom spun on his heel and left the room. The door hissed closed behind him.
Andrei clapped his hands together. He turned to look at Kirk, who was still seated. "I believe that concludes our status meeting, Commander," he stated with a smile.
Kirk had so many things he wanted to say; in Tom's defense and in his own. He looked up at the captain, his eyes intense. "Permission to speak freely, Sir?" He asked slowly.
The captain studied his first officer's face thoughtfully. Obviously, Stephen didn't approve of how he dealt with the lieutenant's mental block. There would be time for explanations, but not now. Stephen didn't want to hear explanations, he just wanted to vent. "No," he eventually answered. Kirk looked shocked. Never before had a superior officer refused that request. Bolerov headed for the door, then turned his head back around. "But, we will talk, Commander... eventually." With that, the captain left the room and his stunned first officer.